<p>I only got into one school: MIT.</p>
<p>All of the e-mails/phone calls/letters they sent after I got in really made me laugh... "We're sure you're deciding between lots of wonderful college opportunities." Hah.</p>
<p>This is, btw, in response to the beginning of this thread - I didn't read all the way through, but the topic appears to have changed.</p>
<p>Gigog - Wow, did you apply EA or did you just not pick safeties well? Yikes.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In middle school, I ran track and finished dead last in every race (half-mile), but at least I never walked. The coach called me a failure to my face.</p></li>
<li><p>In 10th grade, I verbally slapped and otherwise mocked a teacher in front of a large group for repeatedly cancelling math team practices without explanation and then criticizing our competition performance. I later found out from another teacher she had been driving her husband to an out-of-town doctor for cancer treatments. He's still holding on.</p></li>
<li><p>Was not allowed to submit a NHD History Fair research paper at the county level because i missed the early submission deadline my teacher never mentioned to those of us doing papers. I had spent 2 months on it and incurred $40 in late fees at the library.</p></li>
<li><p>Fell off the stage in front of my entire class of ~500 people after giving a student government election speech. I was running for treasurer and lost to the only other candidate.</p></li>
<li><p>Allowed my old journal, which contained many embarrassing childhood secrets, to be discovered by my sisters. It included a declaration of love for my fourth grade teacher and negative comments about his wife, who taught second graders at the same school.</p></li>
<li><p>Was not asked out by anyone to my junior or senior proms. Fortunately, senior prom coincided with CPW.</p></li>
<li><p>Evolved into arch-enemies with my co-valedictorian (mostly because of competition for the top spot) although we should really have been the best of friends. She was one of the very few people at my school with personal goals and interests similar to mine.</p></li>
<li><p>Had a near-fatal case of senioritis.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>...
I could go on. #2 and #7 are definitely the things I feel worst about. I still got accepted to the three places I applied, though: U Florida, GA Tech, and MIT (deferred EA). </p>
<p>I'm coming to MIT, of course.</p>
<p>Ouch, Hamster. That's rough. =(</p>
<p>I have something similar to #7, and it's one of the few things I truly regret.</p>
<p>My high school field hockey coach, (quite aside from mocking me on and off the field, including mocking my lack of speed while having an asthma attack) once told me that, as a senior on JV, I'd never play varsity and would never be better than mediocre.</p>
<p>Except...I eventually earned a position as a varsity starter, so she could kiss my you-know-what.</p>
<p>As for failures/screwups, I have a feeling that an offhand and fleeting reference to suicidal thoughts without any real explanation was probably not the best idea in a college application essay. Ask me where that essay was sent? =P</p>
<p>Man, I wish I could run a mile. At all. I'm a mean DDR player though.</p>
<p>Our school sent 12 projects to the state science fair (at MIT, no less) last year, and we typically do extremely well. I expected to place, at least, since I'd worked long and hard on my project, and placed 2nd at regionals. Of course, out of the 12 projects who went, 10 placed. I didn't. It wouldn't have been bad, but then I looked at the projects who got 3rd, 2nd, 1st, etc. They were projects like "Which Backpack is the Most Comfortable?" and "The Kinetics of a Chemical Reaction," where the girl basically took a basic law of chemistry and said "Yep, it still works!" I probably shouldn't really be bitter about that, especially at the expense of others, but I think this thread is the best place for it, if there is a place at all.</p>
<p>I failed a chemistry test on hybrid orbitals and VSEPR structures, because I couldn't wrap my head around the concept for some reason. I still hate hybrid orbitals.</p>
<p>I used to go to a Catholic private middle school, and we had masses every month. Being non-religious, I was always scared to death that I'd stick out by doing something dumb and unintentionally committing some sort of blasphemy or sacrilege. So, for some reason, I thought I was supposed to go up to recieve communion. What I didn't realize was that they could tell if you didn't know what you were doing (I held my hands the wrong way), and the principal of the school asked me: "You're not Catholic...are you?" She gave me a blessing instead of communion. I was probably never more embarassed in my life.</p>
<p>I've also come ridiculously close to catastrophic data loss on my main computer not once...but five times. I have a backup now.</p>
<p>robomason, were the near-catastrophic-data-loss experiences due to your own careless actions (trying to install Linux & repartition your hard drive and change the master boot record, for example), or were they simple things like not using a surge protector?</p>
<p>A mixture of the two :).</p>
<p>I think I finally understand how to properly partition a hard drive now though.</p>
<p>In response to kcastelle's question: "Wow, did you apply EA or did you just not pick safeties well?" I suppose the answer is both: Harvard and Yale just don't make good safety schools. Fortunately, I was accepted to MIT (my first choice) EA, which is why I never mailed out my <i>real</i> safety applications. ^_^</p>